


Outrunning karma

by Phantomxlegend



Series: Percy Jackson one-shots :p [115]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Bad coping mechanisms, Hurt Will, Hurt/Comfort, I don’t know what this is, M/M, Nico is a good boyfriend, august 18th was the war in Manhattan, grief ig, or how to tag it, probably OOC warning, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27375877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantomxlegend/pseuds/Phantomxlegend
Summary: Nico walks in on Kayla and Will arguing, it’s an unusual sight but then Will storms away.
Relationships: Kayla Knowles & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Percy Jackson one-shots :p [115]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1701808
Comments: 15
Kudos: 133





	Outrunning karma

**Author's Note:**

> Hahahahahah I hate this. I had the idea and then I started writing like three hours ago and it didn’t turn out how I would’ve wanted it. So like halfway through I lost my motivation and Will to write this. But like i had already committed. Also how have I not used this song as a title yet??
> 
> Enjoy.

Shouting was probably the last thing that Nico expected to be going on at the infirmary. It was usually quiet and Will wasn’t one to shout.

Nico was coming by to see if there was anything to help with, but he hesitated at the door when he heard Kayla and Will arguing. 

“Kayla just leave it alone, okay! I’m fine!” Will shouted, his voice was strained. Nico’s hand hovered over the doorknob, he definitely shouldn’t be overhearing this.

“Will, when was the last time you slept all throughout the night? I know you skipped lunch and breakfast today,” Kayla insisted, she tried to keep her voice level but it was steadily rising.

“That doesn’t matter and it doesn’t concern you!”

“As your sister, I think that your health does concern me!” She shouted, “Will I know you’re stressed, everything that’s been going on, the 18th is coming up—“

“You don’t know what I’ve been feeling Kayla, and don’t pretend that you do!”

Nico took a step back, he should leave, and yet he had never heard Will this angry. 

“Well, I know that I’ve been dealing with everything a hell of a lot better than you have!” Kayla shouted, “you work yourself to death, and then when people get concerned and try to help you, get you to take a freaking break, you get all like this.”

“Well sorry that you don’t help!”

“I miss them too Will! Do you not think that I know exactly what you’re dealing with because I’m dealing with the exact same thing?” Nico could hear footsteps from the other side, “it hurts, Will, I know how much it hurts! You can’t do this every single year. Michael and Lee would hate you doing this! Working yourself to death as your screwed up way to try and cope.”

The infirmary fell silent.

“Will! Where are you going?”

The door to the infirmary swung open and Nico barely jumped out of the way. Will stormed out his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He wasn’t crying but his eyes were glassy and his cheeks were flushed red. Kayla barrelled out after him but stopped. Watching Will walk away.

“Hey Nico…” she muttered, her shoulders slumping, “how long were you standing out here?”

“A while…” Nico licked his lips, “do you want me to—“

“No, give him a while, he needs time to cool off,” she kicked at the ground, “I don’t know what I expected to happen, he always gets upset when I bring up his health.”

“Oh…”

“He’ll be back in a few hours, is there a reason you came by?”

“Uh… I just came to see if there was anything you needed help with?” Nico rubbed his arm awkwardly.

“No, we’re good,” Kayla looked off in the direction that Will had stormed off in. 

“Okay.”

Kayla sighed, “It’s too early in the afternoon for this.”

Nico toed at the ground, dragging his feet as he walked back to his cabin, he worried about what was going to happen with Will. Kayla seemed to know more about what was going on than Nico did but that didn’t ease his worry.

—

Will wasn’t at dinner, Kayla kept glancing around nervously. Nico felt a bit awkward sitting at the Apollo table without the presence of his boyfriend, especially after what he had overheard earlier.

Austin didn’t seem surprised by Will being missing, he didn’t say anything about it. Dinner was quiet at the table.

“Do you know where he would be?” Nico asked, Kayla knew right away who he was talking about.

“The woods probably, he makes friends with the nature spirits,” Kayla leaned her chin on her hand, “he goes there to calm down.” 

“Good luck trying to find him,” Austin said.

Nico stood up from the table, going off in the direction of the woods. Worry crept in his throat.

“Will?” He called, dead branches crunching under his feet.

“Who’re you?” Came a voice from seemingly right next to Nico. Nico almost jumped out of his skin, he was also familiar with nature spirits but that didn’t stop them from frightening him when they popped up.

“Nico… Do you know where Will is?” Nico swallowed thickly. The nymph glanced over her shoulder, she pointed in one direction. Nico nodded and moved in that direction.

The nymph led him in the right direction at least, Nico found Will sitting at the base of a large oak tree. He didn’t look up when Nico approached.

“She told you where I was?” Will asked, hugging his knees to his chest.

“Yeah, can I sit with you?” 

Will shrugged listlessly. Nico sat down on the grass a few inches away. Will sniffed and wiped his eyes on the back of his hand.

“Did Kayla send you to find me?” Will glanced over at Nico, his eyes were red-rimmed and glassy.

“No, they told me to leave you alone for a while.”

Nico didn’t want to pressure Will to talk, if he wanted to tell, then he would. Will choked and buried his face in his knees.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at Kayla like that, she’s just trying to help,” Will picked at the dirt.

“She’ll understand if you talk to her,” Nico said.

Will made a noise in the back of his throat, “I know, I know that I need to talk things out… I just… can’t do that…”

Will clenched and unclenched his hands in front of him, tears rolled down his face, “working is easy, it’s a simple thing, a… a constant… it’s a way to ignore my emotions.”

He let out a low growl and pressed his face back into his knees.

“It’s hard, yeah,” Nico leaned back against the tree, “I’m not good at talking about my emotions either, but you’re allowed to feel like crap.”

“I can’t keep doing this…” Will said quietly, “Kayla doesn’t deserve that, Austin doesn’t deserve it either. I lash out at them when I don’t know what else to do, whenever they bring up my emotions… I can’t do that to them… it was wrong.”

“You can’t work so hard either, you hurt yourself and everyone else worries about you.”

“I don’t know what else to do.” Will’s shoulders shook, “I don’t know how Michael and Lee handled it.”

“How do you know they did?” Nico asked, cocking his head to one side, “how do you know they don’t do what you do? Hide your emotions and try to keep your composure?”

Will didn’t say anything for a long time, “I don’t…”

“Then you can’t beat yourself up over being stressed, or not being able to handle it.” 

“They never lashed out like I do.”

“People deal with grief differently…” Nico wasn’t sure if he had crossed a line or not. He didn’t know how close to the issue Will would let him get.

The silence hung over the two of them like a wet blanket. Will sighed tiredly, his stomach growled.

“I don’t know,” It was clear Will didn’t seem to want to talk about it anymore. He stretched his legs in front of himself.

“You didn’t eat dinner,” Nico said, attempting to sort of change the subject.

“Too busy moping.”

“I have some food in my cabin,” Nico said, “we could eat some there.”

“I need to apologize to Kayla first,” Will pushed himself up to his feet, his knees were shaking.

“Yeah,” Nico agreed, he followed Will out of the woods, he kept his head down, looking at the

* * *

Nico waited in the hades cabin for Will to get back from talking with Kayla. The conversation was a lot longer than Nico thought. An hour later Will slunk into the cabin like a dog with his tail between his legs. His eyes were red and puffy from crying.

“How’d it go?” Nico asked.

“We talked about some things,” Will sniffled and curled up in the bed next to Nico. 

“You feel better?”

“I don’t know,” Will pressed his face into Nico’s side, “we have a new understanding.”

“That’s good.”

“Mm.”

Nico wrapped his arm around Will’s shoulder. Will sighed, not moving from where he was laying.

After fifteen minutes Nico could safely assume that Will had fallen asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> *loud screaming* I didn’t know how to end this and I just wanted to get it done. You may ask like “oh phantom if you don’t like it why do you post it?” The answer is because I have no shame and I am an absolute slut for positive feedback.
> 
> Till the next post yall.


End file.
